Clinton calls for 'real democracy'

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continued the Obama administration’s careful but unmistakable move away from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Sunday, declining to repeat her assessment that the Egyptian government is “stable,” and instead pressing for a move to democracy in the largest Arab country.

“Real stability only comes from the kind of democratic participation that allows people to feel that they are being heard,” Clinton said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week with Christiane Amanpour,” calling for “real democracy.”

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She warned that the U.S. would not accept two alternatives as potential ends to the current crisis: “democracy of six months or a year and then evolving essentially into a military dictatorship” or – a scarier specter for American policymakers –what she described on NBC’s “Meet The Press” as “faux democacy like the elections we saw in Iran…where you have one election 30 years ago and the people stay in power and become less and less responsive to their people.”

Clinton, who appeared on all five morning talk shows Sunday, delivered an American message that has been refined in recent days to walk a careful line of demanding reform, and sympathizing with the masses of peaceful protesters , while falling short of outright condemnation of Mubarak – or demanding that he leave.

“It is not a question of who retains power –that should not be the issue,” she told David Gregory on “Meet the Press.” “It is how are we going to respond to the legitimate grievances expressed by the Egyptian people and chart a new path.”

“We want to see free and fair elections and we expect that that will be one of the outcomes of what is going on in Egypt right now,” Clinton said.

Clinton avoided a question from CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union” on whether the United States is beginning to back away from Mubarak.

“We do not want to send any message about backing forward or backing back,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is to help clear the air so that those who remain in power, starting with President Mubarak, with his new vice president, with the new prime minister, will begin a process of reaching out, of creating a dialogue that will bring in peaceful activists and representatives of civil society to, you know, plan a way forward that will meet the legitimate grievances of the Egyptian people. “

The Obama administration, while not calling for Mubarak to step down, appears set to continue pushing for additional concrete steps toward democracy, human rights and economic reform. Clinton made clear that the administration regards Saturday’s steps as a start — but inadequate. Instead, the American push is for a new round of elections – though officials continue to debate the ideal timetable – in which few believe Mubarak could run, much less win.

Clinton said she had spoken to Egypt’s foreign minister and that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had spoken to his counterpart amid constant contact between American and Egyptian officials.

“We continue to urge the Egyptian government, as the United States has for thirty years, to respond to the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people and begin to take concrete steps to implement democratic and economic reforms,” she said on NBC.

On “This Week,” Clinton called Mubarak’s appointment of a vice president for the first time in three decades the “bare beginning” of reform, and she denied that $1.3 billion in American military aid would be used as a lever to force Mubarak aside.

“There is no discussion as of this time of cutting off any aid. We always are looking and reviewing our aid,” she said on “Meet The Press.”